Associations of socioeconomic status, parenting style, and grit with health behaviors in children using data from the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC)

PURPOSE: This study aimed to comprehensively explore the associations of socioeconomic status, parenting style, and grit with children's health behaviors. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 1,040 parents and their children using data from the 2018 Korean Children's Panel Survey. Socioeconomic status was measured in terms of household income and subjective socioeconomic status. Parenting style and grit and were measured using 62 and 8 items, respectively. Health behaviors were measured by assessing healthy eating habits, physical activity, and sedentary behavior. RESULTS: Higher household income (β=.07, p=.018) and high maternal levels of an authoritative parenting style (β=.20, p<.001) were associated with higher compliance with healthy eating habits among children. Higher grit was associated with a higher number of weekly physical activity days (β=.08, p=.028) and sedentary behavior for <2 hours (odds ratio [OR]=1.04, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.01-1.07) in children. A maternal permissive parenting style was associated with sedentary behavior for >2 hours on weekdays (OR=0.43, 95% CI=0.27-0.69). CONCLUSION: We suggest that when planning interventions to improve children's health behavior, it is essential to adopt a multifaceted approach that avoids practicing a maternal permissive parenting style, promotes an authoritative parenting style, and incorporates strategies to increase children's grit.